Francesco earned a BSc in Biological Sciences with honors from the University of Palermo in 2019 and a MSc in Medical Biotechnology with honors from the University of Turin in 2021, completing an internship in the Brain Development and Disease Group at the Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO) under the supervision of Prof. Marina Boido and Serena Stanga. In 2022, he was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Human Physiology of the University of Palermo, and then he began an international PhD course in Biomedicine, Neuroscience, and Advanced Diagnostics (Neuroscience curriculum), supervised by Prof Fabio Bucchieri. During his second PhD year, he carried out a visiting period in the Neuronal Signaling Unit at IRBLleida in Spain (under the supervision of Prof. Soler). He successfully defended his PhD thesis in February 2026. Moreover, since November 2025, he has also held a research fellowship at NICO, supervised by Prof. Boido, focusing on the evaluation of novel synthetic molecules with anti-inflammatory properties in in vitro models of age-associated muscle atrophy.
Research focus
Francesco’s research began with the study of mitochondrial and autophagic alterations in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) patient-derived fibroblasts by using molecular biology techniques. In parallel, he also investigated mitochondrial dynamics in SMA, testing a drug-repurposing candidate that enhances mitochondrial fusion in both patient-derived fibroblasts and human iPSC-derived motor neurons. He also contributed to the histological characterization of cerebellar alterations in a cancer-induced cachexia model. Most recently, he has focused on an in vitro model of age-related muscle atrophy to screen pharmacological modulators of the NLRP3 inflammasome.
